Decentralization in the Eyes of Citizens

Scientific Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Miscellaneous, grade: 1,3, University of Mannheim (Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften), course: Proseminar Comparative Political Institutions, language: English, abstract: Responsiveness is one of the features of a sustainable political system. External efficacy - the perceived responsiveness of the political system - forms the input of citizens. This process is influenced by the extent of decentralization of the respective political system. Decentralization, the transfer of policy-making power from a central government to different tiers of government, structures the perceptions and expectations of citizens and creates different forms of tiers of government that can be adjusted to the special needs of regions and their citizenry. Using data from a survey and the International Monetary Fund, this paper examines the effect of (fiscal) decentralization on perceived external efficacy while controlling for measures of trust, corruption and participation.